April 1, 2015 MEMORANDUM To: ISF Board of Directors Subject: 1st Quarter Report I hope this communication finds you all well and enthusiastically pursing your 2015 Goals and Objectives. The first three months of 2015 have been busy with a number of meetings taking place to promote and develop softball on a global scale. Headquarters Operations Our relationship with Plant City remains in good standing, I have met with the Parks and Recreation Director and will be meeting with the new City Manager of Plant City this month. Lori Nolan continues to publicize and promote softball on a daily basis and the newsletters released from the WBSC have been excellent. We are sending solid information on our sport throughout the world and making sure the IOC Members are kept informed on the baseball and softball programs that are being conducted across the globe. Lori is also handling the distribution of equipment as manufacturers are beginning to send their 2015 allotments to ISF. Lori has been working with Ami Baran, Development Chair, on establishing a grant request system for National Federations. This system will streamline the request process allowing the Development Commission an improved process for allocating equipment to member Federations in the future. Laurie Gouthro has been working diligently with our accountants to transfer our financials from Peachtree to Quickbooks. Progress is deliberate and we feel that our new system will be a vast improvement going forward. We are using Quickbooks for 2015 and working to insure that we do not lose financial data from previous years. Laurie is also working on our two World Championships that will be held later this year with the Men's World Championships in Saskatoon and our Jr. Women's World Championships in Oklahoma City in August. Sixteen teams, the maximum, have entered the Men's World Championships and eighteen teams have entered the Junior Women's World Championships. Laurie has also been working with me on updating our insurance programs and we will have Cyber Liability in place shortly. While this is not a large exposure for ISF it is prudent to have this insurance in place. Laurie is also investigating ways to reduce our expenses at our Headquarters. We are looking into downsizing our copy machine/printer when the lease expires in order to save money and we are looking into changing our phone system again to save on our monthly charges.
page 2 ISF Congress The ISF Congress will be held in Oklahoma City, OK. Also, in conjunction with the ISF Congress, CONPASA will also hold their Congress. The Congress will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Oklahoma City. Details are being finalized and a formal announcement on the Congress will be distributed shortly. A tentative look at the Congress schedule is as follows: Saturday, October 10, 2015 CONPASA Board of Directors Arrive Sunday, October 11, 2015 CONPASA Board Meeting CONPASA Delegates Arrive Monday, October 12, 2015 CONPASA Meetings - All Day ISF Board Members Arrive Finance Commission Meets @ 7:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 13, 2015 ISF Board of Directors Meeting ISF Members Arrive Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Commission Meetings - All Day Opening Reception - 6:00 p.m. Thursday, October 15, 2015 Long Range Strategic Plan Presentation - 9 a.m.-12 Noon Commission Meetings 2 p.m.-6 p.m. Dinner at ASA/USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium Friday, October 16, 2015 ISF General Session - All Day Saturday, October 17, 2015 ISF Board Meeting ISF Delegates Depart Sunday, October, 18, 2015 ISF Board Members Depart Again, this is a tentative schedule and changes may occur. I am currently negotiating with a Translation Company to provide instantaneous Spanish/English Translation for the meetings held at the Congress. PASO Meeting The Pan American Sports Organization held their Congress in Mexico in January. President, McMann, CONPASA President and ISF Board Member Tommy Velasquez and I attended the Congress representing softball. WBSC President Fraccari also attended the Congress, we took advantage of his presence at these meetings to discuss pending WBSC issues. Two major presentations were made at the Congress; the Toronto Organizing Committee made a presentation on the Pan Am Games that will be held this July in Toronto and Jose Quinones, President of Peruvian Olympic Committee made a presentation on the Lima Pan Am Games in 2019. He indicated that Lima would duplicate the Toronto program which is great news for baseball and softball as both sports would be on the 2019 program. Also, by duplicating the Toronto program that would indicate that Men's Softball and Women's Baseball would be included in the 2019 Games.
page 3 President McMann and I also had an opportunity to meet with Greg Harney and Francisco Campo from Global Sports Partners. I first met Greg and Francisco when they were staff members of the United States Olympic Committee. Francisco worked in the International Relations Department and Greg was the head of Games Prep which was the department that made all arrangements for the sports and athletes at the Olympic Games. Global Sports Partners is a Consulting Firm that works with sports and sports events around the world and they provided President McMann and I with some interesting insights on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. WBSC Board Meeting The WBSC Board of Directors met in Lausanne in late January. President McMann, Meliton Sanchez, Beng Choo Low, Maria Soto, Taeko Utsugi and Tommy Velasquez represented softball at the Board Meeting. Laurie Gouthro and I also attended the Board Meeting. President McMann, Laurie and I took the opportunity to meet with the International Baseball Federation staff after the Board Meeting and our discussions were very positive. I came away from the meetings with a sense that we are all working together to promote both baseball and softball worldwide and to fulfill our quest to return baseball and softball to the Olympic Program. The IBAF has secured an excellent broadcasting partner with MP & Silva and we asked Michael Schmidt, IBAF Executive Director, to set up a meeting with them in order to discuss softball opportunities going forward. Michael was able to set up a meeting and I had an opportunity to meet with their Korea/Japan representative recently and hope to have follow up meetings with them in the near future. Broadcasting is a key element to the expansion of our sport and I am hopeful that a relationship with MP & Silva can be developed in the near future. European Softball Federation Meetings President McMann, Laurie Gouthro, and I traveled from Switzerland to Ireland to attend the ESF Meetings. CEB, Confederation of European Baseball, also held their meetings in Dublin and they held a joint meeting with ESF as well. The meetings were highly professional and I applaud ESF on their ability to coordinate the sport of softball in Europe with outstanding championships and support of their National Federations.
page 4 Long Range Strategic Plan The ISF hired LBB Strategies to assist us in developing a Strategic Plan that will become the 'roadmap' for ISF into the future. Member Federations were surveyed in January and President McMann appointed a Long Range Strategic Planning Commission to meet in San Francisco, CA in February to initiate the first steps in the development of a Strategic Plan for ISF. In conjunction with the Strategic Planning Sessions, two other commissions met in San Francisco. Rex Capil chaired the Men's Fast Pitch Commission and Hugh Mitchener, Chaired the World Championship Procedural Commission. Both Commissions did great work and established a 'game plan' to promote Men's Fast Pitch and guidelines were established to deal with additional teams that are expected to enter our World Championships in the future. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Theresa Mulqueen, her husband Jack, and Ray Gutierrez for their assistance with Spanish/English translation. Also, a major thank you to the Japan Softball Association for providing translators for their delegates. I am very encouraged by the work done by the Commissions. The interaction and dialog among the delegates was positive and productive. I sensed that many in attendance understood our sport is on the verge of positive changes. I feel a new era of cooperation and working together is emerging and the ISF has the opportunity to set a positive and productive course for its future. The Congress in Oklahoma City in October will be an important - don't miss meeting for all National Federations. I encourage all National Federations to attend as we will be finalizing the Long Range Strategic Plan at the Congress. English Speaking Caribbean Congress & Championship President McMann attended the English Speaking Caribbean Congress and Men s Fast Pitch Championships in the Bahamas recently. He had the opportunity to meet with seven National Federation Presidents and attended the competition. President McMann informed me that major discussions were held on the development of softball in the English Speaking Caribbean. He also stated that the competition was excellent and the operation of the event was professional and well run.
page 5 SportAccord Conference President McMann, Secretary-General Beng Choo Low and I will attend the SportAccord conference in Sochi, Russia on April 19-23, 2015. This annual conference brings together International Sports Federations and National Olympic Committee members from around the world. This is one of the most important sports meetings on the annual calendar. Both the Baseball and Softball Divisions of the World Baseball Softball Confederation will attend SportAccord. WBSC President Fraccari and Baseball Division Executive Director Michael Schmidt will attend SportAccord. In closing, I encourage the ISF Board Members to forward this report along with their comments to the National Federations within their regions. This report along with past reports will be distributed to all National Federations in mid-april. Respectfully submitted; Ron Radigonda Executive Director